Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Navin Kumar Choudhary inaugurates Kisan mela-cum-exhibition at remote block Sumb in Samba

Samba: Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Navin Kumar Choudhary today visited Sumb block of district Samba and inaugurated one day Kisan mela-cum-exhibition amidst enthusiastic response from the local farmers community.

The Principal Secretary along with concerned officers inspected different stalls including Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Sericulture, Handicraft, Khadi and Village Industry, Fisheries, and others exhibiting modern farm machinery, organic products, local products besides the stalls also highlighted various farmers’ welfare schemes and programmes.

The Principal Secretary maintained that the Govt of India resolute of doubling the income of farmers is making inroads even in these far flung areas of districts which is a result of sustained awareness programmes carried out by the agriculture and allied departments.

He further exhorted upon the farmers to take advantage of various schemes under Atam Nirbhar Bharat, CSS and CAPEX for diversified modern scientific farming. Efforts are being made to develop agriculture as highly lucrative business by ensuring emphasis on value addition and packaging, he added.

Referring to recent initiatives taken up by the department, Navin Kumar said the subsidy and incentive part of several schemes of Animal Husbandry, Sheep Husbandry, Sericulture, Horticulture and allied departments has been increased and simplified to encourage the farmers to install agro based units and provide employment opportunities to others.

DDC Chairman, Keshav Sharma and VC DDC Balwan Singh present on the occasion asked the farmers to get full awareness regarding departmental schemes and explore new possibilities in farm sector for economic upliftment.

Meanwhile, different wings and sections of Agriculture Department like Plant Health Clinic, Divisional Seed Certification, Agriculture Engineering, Apiculture, Mushroom, Spawn Production, Agronomist Vegetables, Floriculture, Seed Analytical Lab, Soil Testing Lab displayed their activities and achievements in the exhibition.

Earlier, the heads of agriculture and allied departments educated the farmers about the schemes and programmes of their respective Departments.

Deputy Commissioner, Samba, Anuradha Gupta; Director Agriculture, K K Sharma; Director Horticulture, Ram Sevak; Director Animal Husbandry, Vivek Sharma; Director Sericulture, Manzoor Qadri; Director Sheep Husbandry, Dr Sanjeev; Director Command Area, Rajinder Singh Tara; Joint Director Extension, Shahid Iqbal; Chief Agriculture Officer Samba, Sanjay Verma and other concerned from Agriculture and Allied departments and large number of farmers were present in the occasion.